Karen & Kurt

Edgewood in St. Denis

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Smart Woman

Yesterday I had the opportunity to work from home, so I could go to my third dress fitting. I left the house with what I thought was enough time to get to the shop, but I made the mistake of following the nice seamstress’ directions to take a different exit then the one I normally do. If you know me, you’re not surprised at the following: I got lost. I missed the turn I needed to take because I thought I was already on the correct road. I ended up at the mall, made a U-turn in front of police car and headed back, found the correct road and got to the dress shop – eight minutes late.

Well, eight minutes was too late for the appointment, I guess. Apologizing, the seamstress canceled on me, saying she was “booked solid” and “under the crunch” with other wedding dresses. And they’re moving, so the appointment for next week is somewhere that I have no idea where it is! I am so disappointed – and yes, say, this is what I get for running late. But I was lost based on her directions!!!!

How, the wedding fairies decided to make it up to me and the box from Oriental Trading Company arrived yesterday, too. There are now 126 little bottle of bubbles and the favor treasure boxes for the wedding in our living room. Better yet, I have six bags of silk-flower leis and 12 little yellow duckies wearing Hawaiian shirts. Woo-hoo!

Plus, in the afternoon we finally heard from the hotel and have good news to share with our guests: The hotel has extended the block cut-off date to April 15 and opened additional rooms. This is headway! If you haven’t yet made reservations, please do so as soon as possible. We realize you haven’t received invites yet – and if we had known they would extend the cut-off two weeks when we had been told the block was already, we would have sent them out, most likely, this week. We are looking forward to spending the weekend with our families and friends, so if you are able, please make reservations now.

As for the invites: Kurt and are planning to start work on them this weekend. I’ll let you know when they are able to go out but it will be soon.

Did I mention we turned over the garden for the first time last weekend? Good timing, too, since this weekend is cool and rainy. This coming week I plan to start documenting the garden this year.

So, how does any of this tie to the big thoughts I’ve been having this week? I don’t know. I could tell you how very upset I am at the resurgence of the Scandal in the Catholic Church right now (Benedict knew, the man knew!) and how deeply I feel for the good men and women I have been fortunate to know – priests and nuns, teachers, professors, co-workers, the parents of friends and mentors – who are being unfairly and cruelly tarred by the actions and inactions of others. You cannot defend the indefensible but there are innocent, good and holy people who have dedicated their lives to Christ and His people who will forever be hurt by this. I briefly “worked” for Pope Benedict (he was my boss’s boss’s boss) and I move and think from that

And this proceeds to my other thoughts: St. Francis prayed, “Let there be peace on Earth and let it begin with me.” The Peace Prayer is often my mantra when I am hurt or angry at other people, other ideas, other drivers. I cannot change them, I can only change myself. If I want peace in this world, it must begin with me.

I’ve been dwelling on this lately as I read and hear more hateful and angry language in our media and from people I’m “Friends” with on FaceBook. We, as a people and a nation, are losing our ability to speak about important issues – instead we’re shouting at each other, calling names and dismiss well-thought-out rhetorical arguments with, “Jane, you ignorant slut!” statements. And it isn’t just on political or health care debates, but on societal and religious discussions. What has happened? Have Rush Limbaugh and his ilk won the national discourse so that all we can do now is shout at each other?

Francis’ prayer is that radical at this point in time – Let it begin with me, and not let it begin with you thinking like me. If we are to solve our common problems, and these are our problems as a society and nation, then each of us does need to start from a point of let it begin with me.